Handheld computing devices, “palmtops,” “palmhelds,” personal digital assistants (PDAs), or handheld computers typically weigh less than a pound and fit in a pocket. These handhelds generally provide some combination of personal information management, database functions, word processing, and spreadsheets as well as voice memo recording, wireless e-mail, and wireless telephony functions.
Handheld computers may include hardware modules which allow a user to access and communicate wirelessly with both wired and wireless communications networks. Such networks may include Local Area Networks (LANs) and Personal Area Networks (PANs).
Technologies such as Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11 provide a means to connect mobile devices to a communications network, however they do not specifically address many problems that need to be solved to provide a preferred user experience.
One of the main difficulties of short range wireless devices such as Bluetooth or 802.11 is that the coverage area of each transmitter is relatively small. Short range wireless technology enables Personal Area Networks (PAN) in which small network is formed sharing resources in localized space. PANs are extremely effective for adhoc networks with stationary components (for example an office), or where all components move together (cell phone, PDA, and other mobile devices all attached to a user). A major difficulty of PAN technology is the interaction of mobile and stationary devices. In conventional systems, users of mobile devices do not maintain any records relating to the location of wireless access points or wirelessly enabled devices. Further, mobile devices are not configured to maintain records of the location of access points to gain access to various resources.
Accordingly, there is a need for a mobile device that is configured to record the location of access points and available resources associated with that location as it moves around. There is also a need for a mobile device that accesses a database when a resource is needed, which is no longer accessible at the mobile devices current location, and the mobile device is informed of one or more locations where the resource is available. Further, there is a need for a navigation application that may be used to direct the mobile device to a location where a particular resource is available.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a system and/or method that provides one or more of these or other advantageous features. Other features and advantages will be made apparent from the present specification. The teachings disclosed extend to those embodiments which fall within the scope of the appended claims, regardless of whether they accomplish one or more of the above-mentioned needs.